Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves).

NO TO ABOLITION. Liberal Party officials slam moves to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government and transfer its functions to the Office of the Solicitor General. Photo from the Office of the Vice President

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo and other officials of the Liberal Party (LP) slammed the move to abolish the agency tasked to recover the billions of pesos plundered during the Marcos dictatorship.

(In the more than 3 decades that the PCGG ran after the hidden wealth of the Marcoses, it has recovered P170 billion or $3.4 billion. This is still small compared to the estimated $10 billion worth of ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family. The PCGG was able to do it despite perennial challenges to its mandate.)

She also denounced the proposed transfer of the PCGG to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), headed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, a staunch Marcos supporter.

(We are also worried that correcting the sins of the Marcos family to the people would now fall under the current Solicitor General, who defended before the Supreme Court the hero's burial for former president Marcos.)

Erin Tañada, the LP's vice president for external affairs, said the PCGG's abolition would allow Calida to reverse the gains made during the PCGG's life span, including the recovery of some of the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth.

"How can Calida fulfill his mandate of going after the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth when he supported the vice-presidential bid of Marcos' son and namesake in [the 2016 elections]? Worse, Calida even defended President Rodrigo Duterte's order to give the late Marcos a hero's burial back in November 2016 before the Supreme Court," Tañada said.

Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, for his part, said the move is a ploy to revise history about the massive corruption of the Marcoses.

(If the government is really keen on fighting corruption, why does it want to abolish the PCGG which is running after the Marcos family's ill-gotten wealth?)

Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat shared the same sentiment and said the country's history is "being shamed."

"It is not only the Constitution that is currently being besmirched. Our history is also being shamed. Why is it so seemingly easy to forget all about the abuses of the Marcos regime in the face of gaining more power? Until when would we let this happen?" Baguilat said.

Would you like to share your vote?

Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves).